A happy Father’s Day to everyone out there! I was taking “Inter-dimensional Rover” for a walk today and musing over this post and what I wanted to write. Naturally, it had to do with all things Fringe and specifically our beloved Walter. To answer the question posed in the title, I don’t think Walter is the world’s worst father nor do I think he is a bad one in general. He’s just a victim of his compassion. Is it his fault things went all down hill the moment he went to fetch Peter from the other side? (Yeah, maybe a little.)
In the days approaching this Father’s day the interweb was rife with polls and posts asking the readers what they thought of various pop culture fathers or they asked to vote for their favorite TV dads. One of my favorite sites is “Dans Media Digest”. Dan is from the UK and he covers alot of the same shows that I watch like Camelot, The Killing, Dr. Who etc. He had a poll of TV dads but skipped Walter! Naturally, I wrote Walter in and below is a link to Dan’s site so you can vote yourselves.
Dan’s who’s your favourite TV father?
MSNBC also ran a post on best and worst TV Dads. I’ll have to admit I never thought of Burt Hummel from “Glee” nor did I consider Don Draper from “Mad Men”. Good ol’ Burt is the consummate forgiving and understanding Papi while Don is, well, good and scary! If you’ve seen Don interact with his kids you’re bound to say “Aw!” Then again there is the whole drinking and infidelity thing. But where is Walter in this post? For shame! (Hello, inter-dimensional travel to save someone’s else’s kid!) Here is a link to MSNBC’s work.
The last post comes from Entertainment Weekly and (gasp!) not only do the mention Walter they have him as the worst! For clarifications sake I’m speaking directly about Walter here and not Walternate. The author of the post, Abby West, cites Walter’s crossing over to “help/kidnap” Peter and the “demise” of the two worlds as the main reason. Hey, we’re not done yet Abby give the guy a chance. (Or at least a white tulip.)
So what do you people think? Best TV Dad? Worst TV Dad?
Inter-dimensional Rover
Id like to say that he is both the worst and the best. He created a portal to an alternate dimension to save his alternate son! His mistake is stealing his alt-son from his alt-self, which sounded not as bad until i typed it out. lol. He kidnapped a child that wasn’t his. He crossed the line when he brought redverse Peter back with him. That’s what makes his the “worst” father. The collapse of the two universes doesn’t factor into whether or not he is a good father. He did what he had to do to save his son! which wasn’t really his son.. but is.. arg. 🙁
I still love Walter though, and Fringe!
@Derek, “The collapse of the two universes doesn’t factor into whether or not he is a good father.” Point well taken! Take that Abby West of EW. I agree, his heart was in the right place, all that other collateral stuff was “unfortunate”. (lol indeed.)
Walter is a kidnapper.
I love Walter , he is a great character. I love him truly..he makes me laugh he makes cry and I emote to him about he hurts.
But is a kidnapper.
He stole someone’s child and lied to that child.
It is a combination of great writing and great acting that makes me emote to a child abductor…I know that sounds horrible…but that is part of the charm of fringe…we all forgive Walter for kidnapping a child that was not his.
The fact that his motives were good does not excuse his actions.
@charliefromVA, I can’t bear to call Walter a kidnapper but you are probably right. Now that the timeline has been erased how will Walter see Peter now? Oh wait, he can’t see him at all!